Archéologie du handicap et inégalités sociales au couvent des Jacobins de Rennes (xiiie-xviiie siècles)

Abstract

Population health and disability do not only involve questions of pathology and biology, but also the interactions of humans with their environment and their economic and social situation. Transposed to the populations of the past, archaeology reaches here its limits to identify and characterize the situations of handicaps of the past. Nevertheless, based on the functional impact of twelve disabling lesions involving the carrier's survival, easily recognizable in archaeology, the study of individuals buried in the Jacobins convent in Rennes shows prevalences comparable to those recorded today and inequalities between men and women or in socio-economic groups according to the periods considered. Even if this is more of a cursor position than of real significant differences, this approach is encouraging for the history of disabilities and inequalities.

Keywords

• disability
• social inequalities
• modern era
• severe degenerative pathology
• infectious pathology